The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is hard-pressed to keep afloat the prestigious ₹1,710-crore Kozhikode bypass widening project for which it inked an agreement with Hyderabad-based Krishna Mohan Construction Private Limited (KMC) more than three years ago.
Sources said that the proposal to construct a six-lane bypass stretching from Vengalam to Idimuzhikkal should have started in August 2018 and completed in April 2020. “But no construction activity has started till now,” an official told The Hindu on Wednesday.
If the NHAI took a stern action, sources said, fine could be imposed and the contract of the company could be terminated. The expansion of the 28.4-km Kozhikode bypass was conceived under the National Highway Development Project Phase III to be executed in the hybrid annuity mode. It means the government will share 40% of the cost to start the work and the remaining funds will be made by the contractor.
The delay in executing the project has been attributed to the company failing to secure the bank guarantee of ₹85 crore for commencing the project. Later, the NHAI decided to accept the performance bank guarantee from the company. Then INKEL Ltd (formally Infrastructure Kerala Limited), a public-private partnership company promoted by the State government, stepped in to partner with the company to get the project going.
But a decision not to allow INKEL to undertake any works envisaged under the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KFIIB) had put the project in trouble, sources said.
The project has been going through rough patches at all times from the initial stages. A new financial package had been worked out before March. But the lockdown coupled with the uncertainties resulted in the project failing to take off, sources added.
The State government had handed over the land, which was acquired more than two decades ago, to the NHAI in December 2019. About 130 hectares had been acquired for the widening of the bypass into 45-metre-width.
